In the course of an interview to appear on CR this Sunday, the cartoonist Lynda Barry revealed that in her guest-editing stint on the next Best American Comics volume, the book and its publisher Houghton Mifflin were denied permission to reprint an excerpt from one of her favorite comics of recent vintage: Batman Year 100.“I adored Paul Pope’s Batman 100,” Barry says in the piece. “His version of Batman gave me the same feeling I had when I read Batman as a kid. There was something so alive and beautifully drawn about it. Unfortunately, DC refused to grant permission to include it in The Best American Comics 2008 and it was clear that no DC superhero comic could ever be included in the collection.”
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Comments ( 7 )
Blake Himsl Hunter commented on Jun 27 08 at 3:15 pmthat is just stupid in the way that only a corporation is willing to be stupid!
David commented on Jun 28 08 at 1:52 amI’m genuinely curious: can anyone think of any rational explanation for this? Closest I can come is “DC thought it’d cut into sales of their own Year 100 collection,” but since it was only going to be an excerpt that seems a bit strong. Anyone else want to try?
Sniffer commented on Jun 28 08 at 6:48 amDC is releasing their own Best American Comics of 2008 collection?
Brian commented on Jun 28 08 at 10:30 amWell, at least this guarantees that, come the Best American Comics of 2008 book, the comics blogger internet will once again start whining about how the anthology is snobbish and unable to include “real storytellers.” I can’t wait!
Dave commented on Jun 28 08 at 5:34 pmDC is probably doesn’t want Batman being packaged with adult material outside their editorial control. They don’t want parents complaining about picking up the book to give to their kids when they saw Batman and then exposing the kid to naked pictures of Leonardi DaVinci or whatever.
I think it’s overkill given the nature of the project, but it’s consistent with their previous behavior.
